Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE:BTU) – Investment analysts at Seaport Global Securities lowered their Q3 2019 earnings per share estimates for shares of Peabody Energy in a research report issued on Wednesday, July 31st, Zacks Investment Research reports. Seaport Global Securities analyst M. Levin now expects that the coal producer will post earnings per share of $0.30 for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $0.45. Seaport Global Securities also issued estimates for Peabody Energy’s Q4 2019 earnings at $0.39 EPS, FY2019 earnings at $2.22 EPS, FY2020 earnings at $0.28 EPS and FY2021 earnings at ($1.34) EPS.
Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on BTU. B. Riley set a $29.00 target price on Peabody Energy and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. TheStreet cut Peabody Energy from a “c-” rating to a “d+” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Deutsche Bank cut their target price on Peabody Energy from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Peabody Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $27.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Peabody Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Monday, August 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Peabody Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.60.
NYSE BTU traded up $0.02 on Monday, hitting $17.41. 723,800 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 850,393. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $20.45 and a 200-day moving average of $25.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Peabody Energy has a 52 week low of $17.10 and a 52 week high of $44.71. The stock has a market cap of $1.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 0.83.
Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The coal producer reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.09. Peabody Energy had a return on equity of 10.64% and a net margin of 9.47%. The business had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year.
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be paid a $0.145 dividend. This represents a $0.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%. This is a boost from Peabody Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 20th. Peabody Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.41%.
In other news, EVP Charles F. Meintjes sold 35,779 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.68, for a total value of $847,246.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 123,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,922,064.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder International L.P. Elliott purchased 9,801 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $17.99 per share, with a total value of $176,319.99. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 809,698 shares of company stock valued at $14,853,296 over the last quarter. 0.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BTU. Quantamental Technologies LLC bought a new position in Peabody Energy during the 1st quarter worth $110,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in Peabody Energy by 779.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 6,441 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $155,000 after purchasing an additional 5,709 shares during the last quarter. Aperio Group LLC bought a new position in Peabody Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $168,000. Convergence Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Peabody Energy during the 1st quarter worth $201,000. Finally, Jefferies Group LLC bought a new position in Peabody Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $219,000.
About Peabody Energy
Peabody Energy Corp. engages in the business of coal mining. It operates through the following segments: Powder River Basin Mining, Midwestern U.S. Mining, Western U.S. Mining, Seaborne Metallurgical Mining, Seaborne Thermal Mining, and Corporate and Other. The Powder River Basin Mining segment consists of its mines in Wyoming.